


Staring into Abyss

by WotanAnubis



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Abyss - Freeform, Cindered Shadows, Edelgard's Musings, Gen, Scheming, White Clouds, religious differences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:21:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22737955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WotanAnubis/pseuds/WotanAnubis
Summary: In which Edelgard considers how Abyss might factor into her plans.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	Staring into Abyss

**Author's Note:**

> Perhaps one of the main reasons I don't write that much about Petra is because writing her dialogue is a real challenge.

Edelgard ventured down hallways guarded by indifference and neglect and wandered into the dim torchlight of Abyss.

She had several conflicting emotions about Abyss. Most obviously, of course, was the unease she felt about any, unlit, underground chambers with few visible escapes back to the sunlight. But at least Abyss was too poor to afford certain kinds of equipment and the floor wasn't stained with blood. She could deal.

But the most prominent feeling, and the one Edelgard was most ashamed of, was that these Abyssians could be useful to her.

It would still be several moons before everything was ready for Edelgard to make her move, but up on the surface, her troops were already moving into place. Merchant caravans, wandering performers, groups of pilgrims. Scouts and spies, mostly. Nobody had ever assaulted Garreg Mach in its near one thousand year history, so Edelgard needed all the information she could get.

And now it turned out that below Garreg Mach there was a hidden society of the rejected and the despised. Edelgard's most loyal troops were fed up with the cruelty, inequality, and corruption that had ruled Fódlan for centuries, but they were still, for the most part, acceptable to Fódlan society. The people of the Abyss were not.

If anyone wanted to see Fódlan's rotten system overthrown for something better, it'd be the Abyssians. If Edelgard could only convince them that they shared a common enemy, and a common goal, she might be able to recruit a hidden army right under the Church's nose.

Recruitment efforts were not going particularly well, though. As Edelgard walked through the squalid, torchlit streets, most people either glared at her or pretended not to see her. Probably nobody recognised her as the Imperial heir, but it wouldn't have mattered if they had. She was from the surface. She was one of those who'd rejected them. She shouldn't be here.

And Edelgard couldn't set them straight. Not openly. The Abyssians might be their own insular little community, but they all knew they were only here because the Church was just barely willing to suffer their presence, provided they remained out of sight and didn't trouble anyone important. The moment Rhea changed her mind about Abyss, it'd all be over for them. So if Edelgard revealed her plans to the people of the Abyss, there was a very real chance one of them might try to inform the Archbishop in hopes of currying favour with her. And then it'd all be over for Edelgard.

Edelgard was shaken out of her reverie when she heard a voice raised in song. It wasn't that unusual to hear people singing in Abyss. Nobody really owned anything in Abyss, but they all had a voice. And at least down here, there were others willing to listen to them.

No, what surprised Edelgard was that the voice was familiar. A surface voice. But why would someone from the surface come down here to sing? It made no sense. Probably she'd just misheard. Most likely the echoes of these subterranean tunnels had distorted that voice into something Edelgard thought she recognised.

Still, Edelgard's curiosity was piqued, and since she hadn't really come down here with any particular plan in mind, she decided to try and follow the voice. She was certain she'd find someone worthwhile. Even if it was 'merely' someone with a reasonably good singing voice.

The voice grew louder louder as Edelgard drew nearer, and before long the song changed from distant humming into something with actual words in it. She didn't recognise any of them, though. Odd. Even though the people here had been rejected by Fódlan, they hadn't rejected the language of Fódlan.

Eventually, Edelgard was led to the Abyssian shrine. She'd never been here before. There was surrounded by quite enough religion back on the surface for her to have any interest in seeking it out down here in the dark. But instead of the statue of Seiros she'd been expected, Edelgard instead found a statue of a cloaked figure, her face hidden in the darkness of her hood, with two large, stone wings that appeared angled to embrace in the room in their feathery embrace.

Edelgard found herself staring at the strange Goddess, utterly dumbounded. Who was this? How long had she been down here? Did Rhea know she was down here? Had the Abyssians found this Goddess down here in the dark, or had she come from a time before Sothis descended onto Zanado?

"Edelgard!"

Edelgard turned sharply and found herself surprised into speechlessness for a second time. So she had recognised that voice! 

Petra sat cross-legged on the filthy floor, looking up at her with a faintly puzzled expression.

"Petra," said Edelgard. "I hadn't expected to find you here."

"I could be saying the same thing," said Petra. She stood up, brushing the dust off her legs and boots. "I had no knowledge that you are coming to this place as well."

"Well, not _this_ place," said Edelgard. "But I have to ask. Is that... is that your Goddess?" she asked, nodding towards the winged statue.

"No," said Petra. She laughed. "Brigid is being much too warm for our Goddesses to wear such heavy cloaks. No, she is being a Goddess of Abyss."

"Really? People here worship her?" Edelgard said.

"I am believing so," said Petra. "But I am not worshipping her. I come to be communicating with the spirits."

"Ah, yes," said Edelgard, uncertainly. 

She was vaguely aware that the people of Brigid worshipped spirits, but that was about the extent of it. A vassal of the Empire, and she hardly knew anything about it.

"And, ah, these spirits, they like it when you sing to them?" Edelgard asked.

"Most certainly," said Petra. "Many spirits are having much playfulness. They are pleased to have offerings of song."

"I see," said Edelgard. "But I have never heard you sing up at the Monastery."

Petra wrung her hands uncomfortably. "Garreg Mach is not having any spirits. I am believing they were-" she stopped abruptly, then after a moment's silence said, "Spirits are being here, though."

"Is that so?" Edelgard said.

"People here are having very little, and no light. There should be much sickness, but instead people here are surviving," said Petra. "I have much certainty that the spirits of the Earth are helping them."

"Hmm. Well, if you say so," said Edelgard. "But now I wonder, how often do you come down here, Petra?"

"Whenever I am feeling the need," said Petra, her voice strangely neutral.

"And when you come down here, do you ever talk with the Abyssians?"

"Of course," Petra replied. "But why do you want to be knowing this?"

"Did they ever tell you about this Goddess of theirs?" Edelgard asked.

Petra shook her head. "No, they are too frightened to. Some came down here because it is being the last place in Fódlan where they can worship Her. They are fearing that if I carry forbidden stories of Her back to the surface, the Church will drive them away."

"I see," said Edelgard.

A thought unfurled itself in Edelgard's mind. It was a hideous thing, and part of Edelgard felt disgusted for even thinking it. But she couldn't help it. She was as she had been made.

She could promise the Abyssians freedom of religion. All across history, people had been willing to fight for their beliefs. And, perhaps, people who believed so strongly that they were willing to live in darkness and filth for their faith, would be willing to take up arms for the right to practice their faith in the sunlight.

The best, and most despicable, part of it all was that Edelgard planned to bring freedom of religion to Fódlan anyway. She intended for Fódlan to look beyond its borders and see something other than enemies out there. She wanted better relations with Almyra, and Dagda, and Sreng, and Morfis. Giving them a place to practice their beliefs in Fódlan would help smooth that process. And if the people of Fódlan were exposed to other ways of thinking, perhaps they would be less inclined to listen to clergy trying to tell them that a Goddess-ordained Crest system was the only proper way to organise a society.

And if she then also revived some ancient Fódlan religion, she'd gain the loyalty of its adherents - however few they were - and weaken the Church's claims to spiritual supremacy that much more.

Or she'd plunge the continent into centuries of bloody religious strife.

"Edelgard?"

"Hmm? Oh, I'm sorry, did you say something? I was just thinking about something," said Edelgard.

"I was saying we should be leaving," said Petra. "The time is now for them."

People shuffled into the chapel. Men and women, old, young, and middle-aged. Some were carrying candles. Possibly for some religious purpose, possibly because they simply needed a bit of light. Edelgard wondered how many of them had come here to worship the winged, cloaked Goddess specifically. Surely not all of them.

A little girl broke from the silent crowd and bolted to Petra with a smile on her face.

"Petra! Are you going to sing for us?" she asked excitedly.

Petra smiled. "No, I'm sorry. In fact, I was just leaving."

"Aww," said the girl. "Oh. Oh! Petra! I saw one! Yesterday, when I was drawing water."

"Really?" said Petra. "You must be telling me all about that. Next time. Now I must be going."

"Alright," said the little girl, obviously unhappy that she couldn't tell her story right now.

Edelgard and Petra left the shrine, and walked down the dim streets of Abyss in silence for a while.

"It brings me great sadness seeing them," said Petra.

"Who?" said Edelgard.

"Children," said Petra. "Nobody was coming here because they were really wanting to, but those children were never coming here. They were being born here. They are growing up never seeing the sun, or grass, or the sky."

"You're absolutely right," said Edelgard. "Someone ought to do something about that."


End file.
